Anyone had a Wickes Kitchen?

[FuriousGeorge]

That's it really.Our kitchen is about as old as me and falling apart.We saw a lovely one in Wickes today,a solid oak one painted in a Farrow & Ball sagey colour.It is half price at the minute and apparently will be in the sale next year too,so we are hoping to scrape the money together by then.Anyway,has anyone had a kitchen from them and fitted by them? We are hoping to get the fitters to do everything,plastering,tiling ect as I can't face doing it ourselves [our diy bathroom is about to enter it's 3rd year of unfinishedness,so I am aware of our limitations].

Thanks.

furious george
Just rediscovered this thread and was wondering if you went ahead with the Wickes kitchen and how much it was discounted in the sale? We have just started looking for kitchens and had a quote from homebase today for around £10000 which was not for solid wood units. I really like the Heritage Grey Wickes kitchen too but we haven't been there yet for a quote. Homebase are charging over £3,500 for installation which seems a bit steep to me??

Hi Mins.Yes,we went ahead and ordered it at the end of January.It should be here next Wednesday.It went down to 50% then a further 15%.We also got the Rangemaster cooker discounted,chimney hood discounted and the dishwasher for £120 [should have been £500+].So we are pretty pleased.

However,they wanted to charge us £4300 for fitting it!We have got an independent kitchen fitter at £150 a day and a gas fitter/electrician/plumber to do all those bits for a max of £500.So even at a push we are saving approx £3000 by sourcing our own tradesmen.

BTW,the carcasses of the kitchen aren't oak,just the frames and doors.Ours came in at £7030 all in I think.They also gave us a Wickes card with about £300 worth of points on it.

Also,I get the feeling kitchen suppliers are desperate for business atm.My fitter said that he had told the guys he knows at Magnet that he was fitting a Wickes kitchen for us and they wanted to quote for us too,saying they'd beat Wickes'quote.I said no,as I wanted the Heritage grey and Magnet don't do that one.

If I can help with anything else,please let me know.

Hi furiousgeorge - that's really useful to know - thanx for your quick response! It's the fitting that is the killer - interested to read what you said about getting an independent fitter and how much cheaper it is. May well have more questions later but hope yours arrives OK!

You're very welcome Mins.

I've not got a fitting date yet,as we are waiting for the range to arrive.I'll post some before and after photos when it is done.

Another thing which might help-I went onto the Screwfix website and looked at the kitchen fitters trade message boards.I got a very good idea of how they rated various kitchens [interestingly they don't rate B&Q,who own Srewfix]and what they charged to fit ect.You can even find a fitter via the board.

Agree that £150 a day is about the going rate here too for a kitchen fitter (and I am in the expensive SE). Lots of tradesmen are desperate for work at the moment so you shouldn't have trouble finding a good one.

Your kitchen sounds lovely FG - must be a fairly new model as I don't remember seeing it when we were looking for a new kitchen a couple of years ago?

FG thanks again for the tip on the screwfix website - very useful. I'll be having a look at that later.

Great thread FuriousGeorge! We have just bought a new house and will be putting in a new kitchen although not till next year probably. Wonder if the 50% off will happen next year too?

Some great tips on here.

And your kitchen looks lovely. Will be waiting for the photos!

FG and chimchar - or anyone else? Have any of you contacted Benchmarx who apparently supply Wickes kitchens? I've looked at their website and requested a brochure. Was just wondering if it really is cheaper to buy from them rather than Wickes and if so if there is any catch?

I contacted Benchmarx,but their nearest branch is over 100 miles from us,so had visions of having to make multiple trips to get missing bits and pieces,so decided I couldn't do with the hassle.I also struggled to match up everything on my quote with their brochure and wasn't near enough to go and check in the showroom.If I'd been in the SE,I probably would though.

Wickes do have sales at least twice a year.The saleman advised me to hold off until it went in the sale and advised me what date it would start.

Decorhate-thanks.It is a new range from about last Nov.I agree with you about tradesmen being desperate to get work.Years ago I was trying to get quotes for work, no one wanted to know.Things are very different now,and I actually feel quite sad for some of the guys I've spoken to.

I've rung rangemaster today and my range will be delivered on 5th March-so all being well,work will start on the following Monday.Am very excited as I've put up with a grotty kitchen for sooooo long now.

hi mins.

i did contact benchmarx, the reading branch. spoke to a lovely guy (who sounded just like gavin from gavin and stacey!)

i had an appt with wickes where they planned the kitchen, priced it all up and gave me a print out. i went through the list with him on the phone and he gave me their price on it....one unit i wanted from wickes, in the sale, was going to cost me over £800.....the benchmarx price was about £200, so well worth it.

i'm in cardiff, so not at all close to benchmarx, but the man said they would deliver it for £100 or would meet me halfway for £50 and help me load it up to my van...

fwiw, we ended up buying a howdens top of the range kitchen for a great price and fitted it ourselves. it took us a while, and we paid a few different people to do things we couldn't, like plumbing in the cooker and fitting the worktops etc...

i'm so pleased with it all....honestly. i just stand in it and grin!

Chimchar - thanks for that - useful to know. Will probably get a quote from Wickes and then contact Benchmarx. Cheers!

Mins,we've had a change of plan,the kitchen is now going in next week,all being well. I rang the fitter to ask what goes in first,range or cabinets and he said cabinets,and wants to come next week as he is getting busy.We've had a mad scamble this evening to co ordinate the electrician/gasman and plasterer.So,if it goes to plan,we rip old kitchen out on Friday,electrician/gasman comes and does his stuff Monday,plasterer,Tues/Weds,kitchen fitter Thursday onwards.Argh,I'm working til 1pm tomorrow and only have tomorrow afternoon to pack everything up into storage.It is going to be chaos here.

Mins,we've had a change of plan,the kitchen is now going in next week,all being well. I rang the fitter to ask what goes in first,range or cabinets and he said cabinets,and wants to come next week as he is getting busy.We've had a mad scamble this evening to co ordinate the electrician/gasman and plasterer.So,if it goes to plan,we rip old kitchen out on Friday,electrician/gasman comes and does his stuff Monday,plasterer,Tues/Weds,kitchen fitter Thursday onwards.Argh,I'm working til 1pm tomorrow and only have tomorrow afternoon to pack everything up into storage.It is going to be chaos here.

FG - oooh sounds like chaos - but hey at least you'll have your new kitchen next week! We have had a brochure from Benchmarx and am just about to try and arrange an appointment with Wickes to get a quote. Also have a local kitchen fitter coming round tonight to give us a quote which will be interesting. Hope yours goes well. Let me know.....

I went to Caerphilly Wickes, and My first impressions in the showroom and quality / range of products was WOW not what I expected,I had gone round all the usual suppliers and thought I had decided another supplier untill my neighbour told me how good the found Wickes when they had had a Kitchen and 2 bathrooms done earlier in the year by them.I went to the store and was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the product and the choice available.We met Simon the designer there and he talked us thru some options and arranged to come and take our dimensions on a free consultation process,He gave us good unbiased advice thru out his service,we with his help came up with a better design than the other originaly preferred supplier that took into account what we wanted from the layout, We found the price was very good for the quality of product and without hesitation also had the Wickes professional instalation service to fit it.Edd the fitter was wonderful and nothing seemed too much trouble for him to do,The quality of his work and eye for detail was second to none - (High praise as im a retired quality control manager).
Wickes was not the cheap quality product I envisaged and equal if not better to any other far more exspensive supliers out there.
I am indebted to my neighbour for recomending Wickes and to Simon for his help in his planning and design work and to Edd for his excelant fitting service standards.I have no hesitation in recomending Wickes, Simon and Edd to anyone using Caerphilly Wickes or in the area who are considering a kitchen purchase.

They are not fantastic quality and if you have a look at how they are installed & designed in their showroom's it gives you an idea of what to expect. They should
also be cheaper due to the materials and mechanisms that they use as they are
aimed more at the DIY end of the market.

If anyone had a good time with Wicks they were lucky.
Last January we decided to go to Wicks as they not only were a bit cheaper than the local one they also had their own fitters so we were led to believe that if anything went wrong they would return to sort it out.

We paid a good price to get a slot booked at the end of April.
Firstly we had to pay for none stop calls to get the fitter to come out with a remark that he could not get hold of us which would not have been true as I had received many calls during that period from other people.
The design in the end was not what we had originally asked for although there was one item I had changed. The fitter got away with asking us to pay for the grout when doing the wall tiles, he never measured how many tiles we would need so we were asked to buy more than were necessary so have a lot left over.
He left many of the sockets filthy and where the light fits for the air vent above the cooker, he didn't trim enough off some the plinth boards for when my son fitted the floor tiles, so now the door of the washing machine is too tightly fitted.
As for expecting them to return if anything goes wrong he has not yet turned up to sort it out so it seems we will have to find someone else to sort it out.

I would never go to Wicks again

Very Poor service ,The socalled 1/2 price kitchen is a con.They say interest free and charge 2200 to assemble kitchen still tried to charge me nearly 2000 to connect gas fire elctrics and connecting the water supply .you better buy the kitchen from them and find an independent fitter and will turnt out cheaper .they never deliver all the things at one time .i gad to report to Furniture ombuds man to get justice still ipaid 1400 extra and ireally dont undestand why we are paying to wivks 2200 to fit .Its all a con .there is no half price kitchen at all .Please dont buy the kitchen and let their fitter to fit.you may hire independent fitter .

does any body know how to reverse their astronomical charges

Onestop

Very Poor service ,The socalled 1/2 price kitchen is a con.They say interest free and charge 2200 to assemble kitchen still tried to charge me nearly 2000 to connect gas fire elctrics and connecting the water supply .you better buy the kitchen from them and find an independent fitter and will turnt out cheaper .they never deliver all the things at one time .i gad to report to Furniture ombuds man to get justice still ipaid 1400 extra and ireally dont undestand why we are paying to wivks 2200 to fit .Its all a con .there is no half price kitchen at all .Please dont buy the kitchen and let their fitter to fit.you may hire independent fitter .

does any body know how to reverse their astronomical charges

Onestop